THE BEST in Philippine books were honored during the Gintong Aklat Awards 2018, held at the SMX Convention Center during the 39th Manila International Book Fair which ran from Sept. 12-16.
Organized by the Book Development Association of the Philippines, the Gintong Aklat Awards celebrates excellence in the Philippine book industry by giving recognition to books written, edited, illustrated, and published by Filipinos.
Sacada: A Catalog of Commodities from a Period of Glorious Tumult by Alan Navarra and published by Visprint Inc. follows an experimental form that mixes typography, sketches, poetry, and more. It won the top awards in two categories: Literature in Filipino and Best Book Design.
The anthology May Tiktik sa Bubong, May Sigbin sa Silong (Ateneo de Manila University Press), edited by Allan Derain, also won for Literature in Filipino.
Also named winners were: Aimless Walk, Faithful River/The Poet Learns to Dance, The Dancer Learns to Write a Poem (Ateneo de Manila University Press) by Simeon Dumdum Jr., and VJ Campilan’s debut novel All My Lonely Islands (Anvil Publishing, Inc.), both for Literature in English. All My Lonely Islands won the grand prize for the Novel category at the 2015 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and the 2017 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award.
Winners in other categories were Bamboo Whispers, Poetry of the Mangyan (The Boomark, Inc.), edited by Lolita Fansler, Quintin Pastrana, Raena Abella, Emily Catapang, in the Arts and Humanities category; Edgie Polistico’s Philippine Food, Cooking and Dining Dictionary (Anvil Publishing, Inc.) in the Food category; Fr. Manuel Blanco’s Flora de Filipinas (Vibal Foundation, Inc.), edited by Dr. Domingo Madulid, in the Natural and Applied Science category; and Science Philippines: Essays on Science by Filipinos (Volume IV), (University of the Philippines Press), edited by Dr. Gisela Padilla-Concepcion, in the Science and Technology category.
Completing the list of winners are The World of the Manila-Acapulco Galleons: The Global and Human Context (Vibal Foundation, Inc.) by Senator Edgardo J. Angara and Dr. Carlos Madrid, in the Social Science category; and Lifeline: A Layperson’s Guide to Helping People in Crisis (Anvil Publishing, Inc.) by Queena Lee-Chua, Lourdes Joy Galvez-Tan, Melissa Garabiles, Ma. Tonirose de Guzman-Mactal, and Mary Jane Bergado-Flores, in the Inspiration and Self-Help category.
Established in 1981, The Gintong Aklat Awards is held every two years to recognize the cream of the crop in local publishing, evaluating books based on overall excellence — from quality of production, to design, to content.

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